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The marketing cost of acquiring a loyal mobile application user reached $1.80 in July, a two-year peak, according to Fiksu. Competition with Facebook's mobile app ad platform and new Apple App Store Top Charts rankings made it more costly to get noticed, analysts say. "There's a major sea change underway now that Apple's ranking algorithm appears to favor highly rated apps and penalize others. App marketers must now work even harder to generate positive ratings," Fiksu CEO Micah Adler says.

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Facebook's mobile network has a higher conversion rate than the ads served on Facebook, although click-through rates are reversed, according to a Fiksu report. Revenue generated through Facebook's mobile network saw an average of $3.64 per user, compared with $1.63 for ads directly on Facebook's app. The report noted that application developers are seeing more return on investment with the mobile network.

Mobile-application developers are struggling to monetize their offerings, in part due to fluctuations in the cost of mobile marketing and user acquisition, according to data from Fiksu. The cost-per-install index spiked 28% on iOS devices and 21% on Android during the month of April.

Downloads in the iOS App Store rose 41% in March from the year prior to 7.1 million daily downloads. Cost per loyal user and install rose 7% and 20%, respectively, as a result of higher quantities of apps available. On Friday, Apple released its first Best of the Month section that has the company's picks for the best releases in the month prior. For April, the list included Hearthstone, Comedy Central, NYT Now and Leo's Fortune.

Fiksu conducted its own research on the iTunes App Store to determine if download volume of applications plays into search rankings based on keyword. Though Fiksu could not find a definitive algorithm connection, there were indications that the amount of times an app had been downloaded positively impacted its search-result ranking, especially if there was a recent increase in its popularity.

Facebook mobile application downloads led the cost of acquiring a loyal game player to drop from $1.50 in April to $1.33 in May, according to Fiksu. At this point mobile app ads cost as little as one-tenth that of desktop keyword click. "Brands are waking up to the fact that mobile apps provide an incredible and very cost-effective canvas for marketing. But using CPM and CPC as sole measures of ROI eclipses the powerful engagement that mobile apps bring and which brand marketers seek," Fiksu Vice President Craig Palli says.